San Diego

Sorry I missed my post yesterday. I was busy relaxing which, for me, includes writing!

But I was up before dawn today, taking photographs. This is the San Diego Temple. It’s amazing that you can get onto the grounds before 7 a.m. The church is generous to make their site so accessible to photographers and others.

Despite the early hour, people were already in church, and a few more arrived while I was taking pictures. The grounds are gorgeous, the architecture amazing, and the way the landscaping dramatizes the temple is pretty impressive. I keep wondering how much this land must have cost, and the fact that this much land was available. A quick Google search says it was announced in 1984, but to me that date is a bit ambiguous. I assume it was finished then. It stands on 7.2 acres of land.

I think maybe the close-up picture is better than the ones with all the grounds in front. It’s more dramatic.

Google Maps then helped me navigate to Windansea Beach. This is better at sunset, but early morning with fog is good too. Different conditions yield different photo opportunities, and then it is fun to play with editing.

I encountered an interesting rock formation immediately after the stairs, and later decided my favorite part was the way the sand color bleeding into the black color looks like a crashing wave. Hooray for high-resolution pictures because this is very cropped.

This palm hut is lovingly maintained by volunteers who replace the palm fronds whenever some blow away.

Here I played with the image to make the scene feel dark and stormy, which of course it was not.

In fact it was a lovely morning for surfing.

Have a great week.